In this day and age of anti-gay rhetoric and campaigns to disenfranchise us of our rights, we must NEVER forget that it could happen again.

C4M/CI and all the hate groups who thrive on denigration, dehumanisation and villification of LGBT people are on notice. We will NOT forget your hatred and we put you on notice that your vile, mendacious statements about us will not go unnoticed or unchallenged.

I was reading about what happened to these men in the Third Reich the other day including some extracts of Heinz Heger’s famous Men With the Pink Triangle book. These crimes should be infamous for just how demonic they were. The numbers were not extraordinary compared to others, but for the people concerned, it must have been unimaginable horror. Did even the victims of Imperial Japan or Democratic Kampuchea’s human slaughterhouses suffer as much as they did?

They were treated worse than the jews. Humiliated, tortured, worked to death, castrated, brainwashed, experimented upon. Upon “liberation” the survivors were later re-incarcerated and most probably never spoke of it for the rest of their lives. All the postwar German government could cough up was some compensation to the handful of remaining survivors six decades later.

Rest in peace Gad Beck and all those who had their all their dignity taken from them and worse. I hope you are now in a better place than this world.

Actually it was, in some cases worse than that. Some pink triangle prisoners were not even freed from the death camps and were kept there for up to six months after all the other prisoners were freed. Many probably just gave up at that point and died from lost hop and dispair!

very sad news, his book is one i have read several times (in both english and german) and is a very clear reminder that while a large number of men died/were incarcerated in horrific conditions based on their sexuality an awful lot of poles, jews, russians etc who were also gay as well suffered too.

There, but for our own resistance and vigilance, go we. Thank you Gad Beck and all the other fighters of your generation. When the world as darkest you provided a glimmer of hope that has become a beacon to-day. Rest in peace.

Very sad. Such desperate and horrendous experiences he lived through and had to live with for the rest of his life. RIP.

It does give us cause to recall the horror and inhumanity that humans have, can and do cause to other humans because of who they are or what they are.

It should give us cause for thought, reflection and motivation to ensure that never again will such atrocities be allowed to occur.

The sad thing is that atrocities are occuring and may well still occur on a similar scale today. We must stand against the events in Uganda, the Middle East and elsewhere. We must also stand strong and resolute against those who hide under a cloak of “respectable” theocracy and expose their evil.

Gad Beck’s suffering in war and in peace should not be in vain, but an inspiration to continue the fight to prevent inhumanity, indignity and inequality.

Given what he had to endure he did incredibly well to make it to 89.
I remember him in the film Paragraph 175 and the courage he showed in standing up to talk about something which most of us would struggle to recount.
He also highlighted an aspect of the holocaust that many were not aware of,, that being when liberated from the concentration camps the attitude from the allies towards inmates who were gay. As it was still illegal to be gay these inmates were often overlooked as victims and perceived as having somehow brought the horror on themselves.
It is sad day but also one to be thankful that he came through it and made to 89.

There are things that I admire and look for in other people: courage, integrity, modesty and commitment to seeing things through. Gad Beck displayed all of these characteristics. The world is a better place for his acts of courage, but is now a poorer place as a result of his passing.

May he rest in peace and may we all be humbled by this incredible man’s courage and compassion.

What a man. Beautiful love and courage and a real fighter. One of the founders of the changes and progress we are experiencing towards the LGBT Community today.
May you rest in Peace. Your dreams and hopes are in the process of being realised.

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